Comparative Analysis of the Musculoskeletal Health of General Population in Poland and Spain: a Cross-sectional Study Using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health for Chronic Musculoskeletal Conditions

Musculoskeletal conditions are a major cause of disability worldwide. These conditions are often associated with chronicity, which is a challenge for healthcare systems to address. Health care must be person-centred and take into account the individual perspective from which the disease is experienced. The lived experience of health conditions depends to a large extent on contextual factors.

The ICF is the framework proposed by the World Health Organization to describe the organic changes caused by a condition and the modulating effect of contextual factors on the resulting disability. The ICF core sets are tools that facilitate the use of this classification in clinical practice. The ICF core sets have been developed for a wide range of health conditions, but there has traditionally been a lack of validation studies. In recent years, studies have been developed using ICF core sets for musculoskeletal conditions in different populations. In particular, the musculoskeletal health of the Polish and Spanish populations has been assessed using the brief ICF core set for post-acute musculoskeletal conditions. This availability of data allows comparisons to be made of the health status of these populations using the ICF as a frame of reference. This possibility of using ICF for this purpose is unknown in the scientific literature and could contribute to the identification of the aspects that are most relevant in the experience of the health condition.

The aim of this study is to identify differences in musculoskeletal health between the Polish and Spanish populations using the ICF as a frame of reference. The development of this study also has the aim of providing the methodological basis for the development of transnational comparisons on the basis of the ICF.